Excerpt from Tulsa World writer and friend, John Wooley, August 22, 2004:
The Red Dirt Rangers
Red Dirt music godfather Bob Childers, joined Cooper, Han and the band and Cooper poignantly dedicated "Leave the World a Better Place" to the legendary Tulsa DJ, music historian and musician John Henry, who died the evening before the show. Rangers drew wild cheers and a standing ovation as they took the stage, making for a goosebump-inducing moment in Tulsa's musical history. And there was another one in the same week. Sapulpa's First Baptist Church was jammed Saturday with people paying their respects to Rockin' John Henry, Near the end of the service, a song not listed in the memorial program suddenly roared out of the speakers. It was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' searing indictment of bottom-line corporate radio, 2002's "The Last DJ," and it hit the congregation like a cloud-to-ground lightning bolt. Spontaneously, applause and chills broke out as Petty sang, "There goes the last DJ / who plays what he wants to play / who says what he wants to say." Although they're both Okies, it's unlikely that Tom Petty and Rockin' John ever met. Still, the song that Petty wrote could not have been a more perfect epitaph for the man who struggled and persevered and ultimately triumphed over the forces of soullessness and apathy - a deejay who played what he wanted to play, and said what he wanted to say, to the very end.
